One thing i like about this game is really fun and colorful dialogue. Even the cliche pirate shtick is done well. The pirate captains are peculiar and all have their own interesting personality. Lots of funny well written banter all around, but not too funny like with some Larian games. Of course it's shallow, but works very well for a swashbuckling adventure story. Also some nice attention to detail like, when i released a steal monkey to wonder around the woods and it came across a campfire with some guys sitting around, they immediately noticed the monkey and one of him said something like "where did this fellow come from" and another one was like "hey, maybe it's thirsty" and they kept watching how the monkey makes somersaults and stuff.
Even combat isn't as bad as i thought it would be. The weakest point of the game compared to other Piranha titles is exploration. Not only more linearity, which i can deal with, but kinda meh world outside of major hubs. Especially dislike the endless "jungle" areas.
Anyhow, much better game than Codex would lead you believe.